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| Welcome
to Game of the Week! Each week there will be a
new featured game on this page. The game may be good,
average or diabolically bad, it really doesn't matter!
Just look at the pics, read the text and enjoy the nostalgia!
:-) Game of the Week! is open to contributions so if you
would like to contribute
a game article for this page you're more than welcome
to! Every article we receive will be considered! |
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Imhotep
1986 Ultimate
Programmed
by Manuel D. Caballero
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text of the present article comes from the review published
in the nineth issue of the British C64 magazine ZZAP!64
(street date: 12 December 1985). |
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IMHOTEP
Ultimate,
£9.95 cass, joystick only
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With three best selling arcade adventures under their
belt, Ultimate have decided to turn their attention
to pure, unadulterated arcade action in the form of
Imhotep. The title comes from the name of a Egyptian
statesman, architect and physician of the third dynasty
(busy chap). The overall flavour of the game though,
is distinctly non-Egyptian -- Imhotep
is in fact . . . A SHOOT EM UP! (Well not quite, as
there is a little bit of dodging and jumping involved).
Pharaoh
Zoser has called upon Imhotep the Wise for advice on
how to put a halt to the misery and famine that is spreading
rapidly throughout the land and taking many lives in
the process. Fortunately for the Pharaoh, Imhotep is
as intelligent as his name suggests and comes up with
a solution. Sort of.
There
is a beautiful princess in possession of some sacred
reading matter -- books known as the Souls of Ra, which
contain the secret of the Nile, 'whose life-giving waters
will once again make the barren lands fertile . . .
' to quote Imhotep. There is one small problem however
-- in order to get the books, Imhotep has first to consult
Thoth, the god of wisdom, for the whereabouts of the
princess. And this means passing through the distant,
troubled lands of the rather unfriendly Jawi Nomads
. . .
Imhotep
begins his perilous journey mounted upon a bird of some
description -- unfortunately the Nomads are also in
control of very similar transport. These birds have
the most peculiar property of being able to shoot large,
rather deadly white 'balls' in any direction. Well,
at least the Nomad's birds can -- Imhotep's 'steed'
only fires left and right. The Nomads can either be
shot or avoided, although there is the occasional attack
from a virtually unavoidable 'homing bird' that can
only be killed.
To
make things worse, rocks and water droplets periodically
rain from the sky, and to just make things really unpleasant,
Imhotep has to progress on foot from level three, jumping
gaps in the ground along the way.
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.
Though not being that
impressed with previous Ultimate releases for the Commodore,
I must admit that they stand up pretty well when compared
next to Imhotep.
As with most Ultimate games, the graphics are very impressive
-- both the scrolling backgrounds
and moving sprites are of a very high quality. The music
isn't that bad but I'm afraid that although the game
looks and sounds like a dream . . . it plays like a
brick. The main skill involved seems to be fighting
against the awkward control method and there is some
appeal in being frustrated. But consistently dying,
quickly, time after time, unavoidably, every game soon
becomes very boring indeed. Why Ultimate releases games
of this quality
on the 64 is beyond me. They
may still be almost unparalleled
on the Spectrum software
scene, but as far as their 64 releases go -- the Ultimate
label is not always a guarantee of a decent game.
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I
was quite surprised to see a shoot em up on loading
the game, as I was expecting an arcade adventure.
Considering the excellent quality of Ultimate's
arcade games on the Spectrum, I expected to play
something special. Unfortunately Imhotep
most certainly isn't. While the graphics are good
and the sound reasonable, the gameplay is not,
being unexciting, totally frustrating and subsequently
forgotten. It will be interesting to see if this
poor quality continues, what with the fourth Sir
Arthur Pendragon game, Dragon
Skulle,
and something called Outlaws
about to make their appearance around now. Have
Ultimate got anything up their proverbial sleeves
other than proverbial arms?
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Presentation
60%
Good packaging but limited options.
Graphics
70%
Smooth, but slow,
two-speed scrolling and
some nice animation.
Sound
40%
Tacky title tune and uninspiring
spot FX.
Hookability
30%
Slow controls and unavoidable high
speed nasties make the game annoying to play instead
of compulsive.
Lastability
16%
Far too monotonous, frustrating
and hard.
Value
For Money 16%
Vastly overpriced and is put to
shame by some of the poorer budget games.
Overall
20%
Unfortunately, Ultimate's worst
yet.
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Htmlized
by Dimitris
Kiminas (26 Apr 2004)
Other
"Games of the Week!"
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